News
Bird feeding helps females more than males
7 July 2020
A new study from Lund University in Sweden shows that female birds benefit more from extra food in the winter. If females receive additional food, they do not need to reduce their body temperature as much as they would have otherwise, and the chances of surviving cold nights increase. Rising temperatures affect wetlands and disrupt the water balance
19 May 2020
In a future warmer climate, evaporation from the northern hemisphere’s wetlands will increase significantly more than previously thought. This is shown by an international study involving researchers from Lund University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. The new discovery provides important knowledge about how the world water balance will be affected in the future. New study on the brain’s water channels offers hope to those with brain and spinal cord damage
19 May 2020
An international research team has discovered a treatment that dramatically reduces swelling after brain and spinal cord damage. By using an already approved drug on rats, the brain’s water channels could be manipulated with positive results. The new study offers hope to the millions of people who are affected by brain and spinal cord damage. New discovery facilitates the hunt for methods to limit Alzheimer’s disease
7 May 2020
For the first time, an international research team has succeeded in quantifying the toxic oligomers that break down the nerve cells in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. The discovery could be crucial in the hunt for new methods to limit the rapidly growing dementia disease. Arctic wildlife uses extreme method to save energy
4 May 2020
The extreme cold, harsh environment and constant hunt for food means that Arctic animals have become specialists in saving energy. Now, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have discovered a previously unknown energy-saving method used by birds during the polar night. New study undermines ideas on the importance of the special quantum mechanical effects in photosynthesis
27 April 2020
The emergence and evolution of photosynthesis played a decisive role when life on earth began four billion years ago. In the past decade, some researchers have presented claims that quantum mechanical coherence plays an important role in this complex process. These ideas have now been critically evaluated in a study published in the scientific journal Science Advances. Gold nanosponges could be useful in computers of the future
24 April 2020
In an advanced experiment, researchers have established that nanoparticles made of metal and semiconductors have properties never previously observed. Among other things, the particles are extremely good at amplifying incident laser light. The new discovery could become very important for the development of optical computers in the future. The story behind that earthy smell in spring
23 April 2020
The earthy smell in spring when the fields are ploughed and the garden soil in flower beds is dug over has a previously unknown purpose. Researchers from Lund University in Sweden, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and other institutions have examined the soil smell and were able to show that it is linked to intricate interplay between millimetre-long insect-like organisms that has existed on Earth for 400 million years - and soil bacteria that are prolific producers of antibiotics. Dogs can detect heat with noses, study finds
6 April 2020
An international research team from Sweden and Hungary have discovered an entirely new sense in dogs: using their cold, wet nose tips, dogs can sense the heat from other animals or a human. Raising young in nuclear family groups – evolutionary bliss for some birds
6 March 2020
Bird social groups are more complex than previously thought. Now, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have established that bird species which raise their young in nuclear family groups develop greater social complexity compared with species that raise their young in groups without family ties. 